Julia Serano

Julia Serano

Julia Serano is an Oakland, California-based writer, performer, biologist, and activist. She is best known for her 2007 book Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity. The Advocate placed the book on their list of “Best Non-Fiction Transgender Books,” and readers of Ms. Magazine ranked it #16 on their list of the “100 Best Non-Fiction Books of All Time.” Her other books include 2013’s Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive (which was a finalist for the Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction) and 2016’s Outspoken: A Decade of Transgender Activism and Trans Feminism (which is a finalist for this years Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction). Julia’s other writings have appeared in over a dozen anthologies, and in magazines and news outlets such as TIME, The Guardian, Salon, The Daily Beast, Bitch, AlterNet, Out, and Ms.

She has gained notoriety in feminist, queer and transgender circles for her unique insights into gender, and her writings have been used as teaching materials in queer and gender studies courses across North America. In addition to her gender-related writing, Julia has a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from Columbia University, and for seventeen years she worked as a researcher in the fields of genetics and developmental and evolutionary biology at UC Berkeley. For more information about all of her creative endeavors, check out www.juliaserano.com.

Presentation: Biological Sex as a Social Construct: Pathologizing Trans and Non-Binary Bodies